The Fragments of Memories
by YumeMori
Summary: The Naka no Kawa couldn't flow as deeply as the bonds of their love and friendship. Lives, villages, battles and her stories may end, but never their relationship. Itachi/Kagome/Shisui, main pairing.
1. The Scars That Begin the Wars

**Disclaimer:** I claim no ownership of _Sengoku Otogizoushi - InuYasha _or _Naruto__. _for they belong to Takahashi Rumiko and Kishimoto Masashi, respectively, along with many other companies. I am only borrowing their characters and settings and plots; they shall be returned in their original condition when I'm done. _I swear_.

* * *

Before I release you onto this work, I have a few points that I want to point out before you do. I normally don't do this, but I feel it's warranted in this case.

_Note:_ As this fic focuses mainly on war and the Uchiha Clan at a very pivotal point, there will be an abundance of political intrigue, violence, betrayal, in-depth looks into the psychological cost of war and death, character deaths, and the older sibling motif. Also, this is a big part of the reason for the "M" rating: explicit violence.

_Note the Second:_ I know it's a bit confusing when it reads, "Itachi/Kagome/Shisui." Please remember throughout this fic that there are so many varied types of love and that the lines between them will often get blurred and twined. On that note, main pairings/relationships are: Itachi/Kagome, Kagome/Shisui, Shisui/Itachi, Itachi/Kagome/Shisui, Kagome/Kō, Inuyasha/Kikyō, Miroku/Sango, Sōta/Sasuke, Sōta/Kagome, Sasuke/Itachi, Karin/Sōta. And there will be various minor ones appearing and/or implied. These pairings will begin to make an appearance in the next chapter.

_Note the Third:_ I put a lot of time into researching what's been revealed of the timelines so far using the manga and databooks/artbooks, so yes, all the years and ages revealed are accurate. The hidden villages were founded about fifty-to-sixty years before the Kyūbi attack, and Hiruzen (Third Hokage) was born about five years before that. The time line for the wars are a bit unclear, so I went with what made sense. So yes, what is revealed about them is canon.

_So very sorry about the long note, and that is all._

* * *

_The Fragments of Memories  
_**_The Scars That Begin the Wars_**_**  
**_

* * *

It is said that when a person dies, their lives flash before their eyes; that they, in their final moments, will remember every accomplishment, failure, dream, and moment as though it is the final judgment. This is equal parts truth and lie as it depends on the individual and whether or not they are a civilian or a ninja.

Civilians, perhaps, are unlucky enough to relive every moment from birth to death as many do not know which are more important nor do they understand which memory is the most significant in their development. The acquirement of a pet or its death is sometimes just as important as the first day of class. There are many theories as to why this is, and the most prevalent one is that they live expecting to never die; without this spice of impermanence and death in their thinking, they cannot assign and do not know the worth of a moment.

Ninja, on the other hand, are unlucky enough to remember moments that defined and brought them to the moment of their death as they _do_ know which are more important and they understand the significance of memories—for some, it is all that remains of all they love. Their first mission is as important to them as their first kill. Everyone knows that this is because they live lives too filled with death, and so they know better than others how short a life is, how alone people truly are in their lives, and they know it can be ended at any second.

Yet at the heart of this point: they both remember. Their memories may not be images, but feelings or names or smells or physical sensations. However, there is always one image: _the_ image. It is this image that allows for so many to die smiling, even in the face of murder, or betrayal... Or the duty one owes a home.

Looking back now, he knows which of the three is true for them. And it makes all the difference.

* * *

**7 hachigatsu, Yondaime 1st Year**  
**South-western Border, Land of Earth**

_We just got word that war ended. Konohagakure has won, so we can't stay around Iwagakure or Land of Earth anymore. Ane-ue and Ane-ki don't explain good. Inu-no-nī-san says it's hatred from signing a peace treaty, whatever that means. But it's OK—the ground's too rocky and uneven for tracking, and something seems to always be exploding._  
_Naraku is all but defeated, too. Onigumo and Byakuya live still, but are heading south through Land of Fire with sobu-san's jewel. I'll definitely get it back._  
_It'll be two months journey, so Ane-ue says. But we'll be home. _Home. _Two more months, and we'll be back in Edo._

* * *

There is a burning in his lungs that makes each breath a harsh lesson in struggle. It would be far too easy to give in to what his body and lungs demand, and just pass out and _die_, yet he knows he would be unable to move on into the afterlife if he did that. He may long for death, for the moment he will close his eyes only to reopen them in some afterlife where his wife and son have been waiting for him to arrive with stories of what they have not seen in the past fifteen years, but he still has his tenacity. If only to finish dragging his youngest daughter and his grandson out of their burning house.

It happened in the pre-dawn before even the birds were awake. None of them were prepared as Edo was a peaceful, non-ninja village. Though it saddled the border between the lands of Fire and Wind, Edo has been untouched by the world of ninja ever since the First Great Shinobi War that devastated the entire world. To be attacked by a rogue ninja—and he _knows_ who and why, just as he knows the ninja holds no current affiliation to any hidden village, but that it will only flame the tensions between Konoha and Iwa during this time of peace after the Third Great Shinobi War—is something that has happened before, yet they have never prepared for it. The pride over being an uninvolved village is why Edo is now hours away from burning to the ground.

He hears the stairs collapse behind him and fear gives his arms strength they have not had ten years. As his home burns, a cloud of sparks and ash and shattering glass follows him outside the door. He collapses and gasps for breath before turning to check on his daughter and grandson.

She is not breathing, as he suspected. The second the first explosion and shattering wood and glass and screams from a clever use of katon jutsu reached their ears, she was out of bed and running down the hall straight into the fire to reach her child. Sōta is not yet a year old and has not learned to walk. And he knows that as long as a mother lives, she will gladly run to her death to save her child. It is what happened to his wife fifteen years ago at the start of the Second Great Shinobi War. Sōta lives, though, just barely.

It is enough for him, and he loses the strength and adrenaline to continue standing.

The color of the predawn sky as it mixes with the thick smoke is a very lovely shade of blue, the same color his wife's eyes were once—

Yet the screams of the dying are fading and the crackling of the rampant fires is becoming louder, and he winces in horror and pain. He has lived through enough bloodshed and three too many wars to not know what that signifies. His beloved adopted village of Edo—

"Higurashi Jimmu." He knows that voice, it is one of the many that haunts the dark corners of his mind during the day and slips through the cracks to his dreams during the night. Hitomi Onigumo. The man who has carried vengeance in his heart for forty years, since the end of the First Great Shinobi War. "The _Gentle Idealist_. The _Hand That Shines_. But no longer—your long life ends today." Onigumo's voice is harsh and cutting, yet unable to go above a whisper.

Jimmu turns his head to the side as he lacks the strength to do anything else. Three-hundred-forty-seven lives murdered, sixty-one years of life, two too many dead loved ones, and one broken heart show in his bent back, his gnarled fingers, his weak body and his broken mind. It is funny to Jimmu, that he was one to walk away from that battle forty years ago with only chakra exhaustion while Onigumo crawled away a broken and burned man, and that now it is he who is the broken man and that Onigumo is now the one who will walk away from this battle alive. Though Onigumo hides his scarred body underneath the white pelt of a baboon, there is no mistaking the hate in his voice and eyes. Though Onigumo is no Uchiha, he bears piercing red eyes from his mutilation decades ago.

Onigumo holds a sword in his hand, and Jimmu knows it is meant for him. He will not be lucky enough to burn alive as the other villagers. His death will not be that easy. And Onigumo walks toward him with a slow, steady gait; it is that of a murderer. One who enjoys the anticipation, one who has waited long enough to exact revenge, one who is probably smiling as much as the scar tissue allows. If he did not recognize the voice, it is that gait that would have tipped off Jimmu to who he is.

Jimmu remembers that day two years ago which would be the last breaking point of the relations between the Five Great Shinobi Lands and set off the Third Great Shinobi War. Onigumo, with his last few remaining members of his organization called Naraku, attacked Edo then. But his granddaughters were home to stand between him and the destruction of their home. He left Konoha years ago in the hopes of saving them from the horrors of war and the ninja ways he helped to create. Yet his sins followed him.

Onigumo, Kagura and Kanna came looking for him and the Shikon no Tama: the bauble that was his wife's last mission that Onigumo failed to claim even then. He gave it to his youngest granddaughter, Kagome, as a birthday present, and as it was the only one of his gifts she liked (as she apparently did not appreciate mummified cat hands, talismans against evil, and chakra handbooks), she fought to keep it. Their mastery of their strange kekkai genkai known as Hama no Reiryoku stunned him: his eldest, Kikyō, proved herself capable of nullifying Kagura's winds; Kaede broke the soul-stealing mirror of Kanna's; and Kagome removed Onigumo's arm.

And then, Onigumo cut into Kikyō's back and shoulder, nearly killing her. He still remembered the sound of metal slicing fabric and skin and muscle, the dull thud when it hit bone, and the way Kikyō bit her lip to the point of bleeding to keep from screaming. She, in all her sixteen years of strength and wisdom and being the eldest, would not bow to the pain.

Kanna, with her dying strength, drove a shard of her mirror into Kaede's left eye. Even he still feels a desire to cover his eye in horror. Blood seeped through Kaede's fingers, and she could not help her screams. She was only thirteen, yet to her credit, she did not pass out from shock. He is certain older, more manful warriors would not be able to make the same claim.

And Kagura, also with her dying strength, sliced into Kagome's side. She, being only five, emulated her eldest sister and did not scream or cry out in pain. Even as the blood stained her shirt and began to stick to her wound.

He never felt more useless and more horrified than that moment. He could understand Onigumo's desire to murder him, but to wound his granddaughters—his last dregs of sanity—to the point of death... For the first time in years, he wished he had not given up the path of the ninja, so that he may kill Onigumo as he should have done decades ago.

Just as Onigumo was ready to turn on him with his sword and destroy the village, help arrived. Three warriors whom he would later learn had their own grudge against Naraku and, especially, Onigumo. Their arrival, even though they were badly wounded as well, was enough for Onigumo to flee. Wakahisa Inuyasha: a ninja from Suna looking into the Kazekage's disappearance and stumbled across Onigumo instead; his strength and determination showed in the fact that he traveled after Onigumo for months despite an unhealed wound above his heart and various scrapes given to him by his companions. Tsukino Miroku: a ninja from Konoha, and the grandson of one of his old friends, Tsukino Ken'ichi, who fought alongside him against Onigumo long ago; he, as his father and grandfather died in the Second Great Shinobi War, was cursed by Onigumo instead with the kekkai genkai known as Kazaana which would one day consume him. And Matsuoka Sango: a ninja from Kusa, and the granddaughter of another old friend who fought alongside him and Ken'ichi, Hideyoshi; Onigumo slaughtered her clan and left her for dead only days before.

After two weeks of recovery, all six would leave to hunt down Onigumo. After two weeks, he heard the news of the start of the Third Great Shinobi War.

He knows that he will die this time, as he should have two years ago, but he also knows his granddaughters, Inuyasha, Miroku and Sango are right behind Onigumo. They will arrive, and hopefully put an end to him and his hate. The Third War has been over with for two months now, it is only fitting for he and Onigumo to die soon. The world and its ways are no longer their world and their ways.

Onigumo stops three paces from him, and he does not bother to glance up. Instead he focuses on the length of his blade and counts the seconds until it will end his life. He is so close now to seeing his wife again, and his son, and his old friends.

"I was expecting more of a fight from you, Jimmu," Onigumo says.

His smile is rueful and small. "I'm an old man these days. Can't do much with my hands anymore, save for some sweeping and tormenting my granddaughters." He does not mention his grandson because he does not want to remind Onigumo about him. He would rather he thinks Sōta dead. It is the last good thing he can do for the boy. "Not like back in the old days. When my fingers worked... But you remember those—the scars and all."

He can hear Onigumo tighten his grip on the hilt. "Che, you're such a pathetic old man now. Rambling about nonsense."

"That's what Kagome says, too. She keeps saying I'm ruining perfectly good stories because I can't keep from going off about something else. Kids these days, no respect for their elders. If either of us did that fifty years ago, we'd have been smacked so hard and sent off on a mission to some—"

"Did I kill your mind when I killed your wife and son?" It is a low blow and cruel, yet it is enough for Jimmu to keep his thoughts straight. He looks up to see Onigumo reach into his pelt and pull out the Shikon no Tama. "All because they refused to hand over this. It was such a waste of Midoriko's life."

He agrees. But that was fifteen years ago toward the beginning of the Second Shinobi War. His heart and mind never recovered from that blow.

It was Ken'ichi, covered in mud and blood who came bearing the news. He was with Midoriko and Ryō, his wife and son, as they returned from a retrieval mission from Ame where they grabbed the Shikon no Tama. They were ambushed by Onigumo and a few of his followers just kilometers from safety.

Midoriko, true to her title as the _Rose of Battle_, fought and killed at least two with her naginata before being overpowered. Ryō fell to give Ken'ichi a chance to escape to reinforcements with the jewel. He was fast enough to salvage the mission and kill his followers, but not fast enough to save Midoriko or Ryō.

He found out then that the jewel was actually not what their mission had been for, and that Onigumo only wanted it because of an old legend that states it can grant any wish. It was one of the few items he received from Ken'ichi as he reported their deaths. Because items were all that remained of his greatest love and his only son: ashes that filled two boxes, a gold wedding band, a Konoha hitae-ate, the shikon no tama, and a photo of his family: him, Midoriko, Ryō, Akane, his oldest daughter, and Etsuko, his youngest daughter and mother of his granddaughters, all dressed in wedding finery as Akane had just married her second-cousin-once-removed and became Uchiha.

Now those items that marked a ninja's life are burning with his home.

"Midoriko wouldn't think so," he says. "A ninja can die at any time, she knew it, and I know it. You, on the other hand, are a coward who's been running from death and after the shikon in the hopes a fairy tale is—"

Onigumo's sword slices into the flesh between his neck and shoulder, and drags through flesh and muscle across his chest. Shock sets in the second cold steel touches his muscles, and he does not feel a searing pain or his blood spilling from broken veins, but the cold, dewy morning air stinging the gash.

The morning sky is quite a lovely hazy blue, he muses as he lies on his back. It is quite beautiful, and he is glad to see such a sight as he dies. It is the same shade of blue that Midoriko's eyes once were, the same eyes he can almost see.

He hears a squelching sound before he sees Onigumo level his sword against his neck. "I could kill you right now, make it swift and painful. I think the Band of Seven would love for me to behead you the same way you and those bastards did during the first war."

Jimmu smiles and thinks there is nothing he would love more than for that to happen.

Instead, the blade is removed from his neck. "But I think I'll give you the same kindness you gave me. Die from your wounds, alone."

_"He'll die from his wounds. Just leave him be."_ He hears his own voice echo back at him as he remembers a battlefield toward the end of the First Great Shinobi War that devastated every land.

Just like Edo now is, that field was ravaged by fire from an early attack. He remembers the stench of burned flesh, or perhaps it is the stench pervading Edo, from the beheaded members of the Band of Seven. They were one of the most notorious groups to come from Iwa. It was that defeat that would lead to Iwa signing the armistice treaty.

Back then, forty years ago, it was him standing above Onigumo to keep him from being murdered by Ken'ichi and Hideyoshi.

"It was a mistake," he wheezes out. Yet Onigumo has already walked away.

And he is left to listen to his heart slow in its beating along with his breaths. He coughs and shivers as the chill of death catches up to him. In youth and, later, a peaceful life, he has not given death much thought. Now, he wonders. Through traveling the world he heard many theories on life and death, and he does not recall them anymore. He does not remember many things in his old age and broken mind, but he remembers what is important: like the shade of Midoriko's eyes and the love her smile could hold even as she was waiting to face a handful of ninja by his side.

He hopes she has waited for him on the other side of life for he has so much to tell her. He has so much to tell his son and Ken'ichi and Hideyoshi as well. Like about their grandchildren: how Kikyō has Midoriko's grace, how Kaede has his smile and fortitude, how he has heard Miyako has taken to the naginata, how Kagome and Sōta have her blue eyes, how Sango is a woman any family would be proud of, and how Miroku has Ken'ichi's silver tongue.

As he closes his eyes and his smile grows as his breaths stop, he can see Midoriko in all her preteen glory just like the day he first saw her on Konoha's first street. She was gangling legs and muscled arms and cutting blue eyes who wore a red cuirass and armored gloves. The way she carried her naginata and her beauty even at ten reminded him of why she earned fame on the battlefields as the _Rose of Battle_. She smiled at his staring and teasingly called him, "_Gentle Idealist_," as Madara had three months earlier at the meeting that would end in Konoha's creation and a truce between cousins. Uchiha Madara (first cousins five times removed, he was always told and would recite with lessening pride) and Senju Hashirama (second cousins twice removed, he was always reminded and would recite with growing pride) put aside their differences for five years for the greater good of the world.

Yet at the end of his life, it is not the battles and lives he ended that he remembers, but what he helped create: Konoha, a family not bound by betrayal of the Uchiha for fraternizing with those who would bear the name Senju and so had lost their eyes, and a love deeper than he could have imagined with his wife. For that is all that matters.

* * *

**8 jūgatsu, Yondaime 1st Year**  
**Edo, Land of Fire**

_Edo has been destroyed. And Onigumo defeated as well. Byakuya fell before him. There's only one survivor, our little brother. I can't believe it's taken so long to get to this point._  
_It's all too late, though._  
_It's taken us two years to accomplish this. Revenge doesn't seem worth it. The lives taken don't seem worth it._  
_Ane-ue and Miroku say we will be in Konohagakure next month, and that we'll stay. I don't remember what it's like to stay in one place anymore. I don't want to either._

* * *

**Revised 7 September 2010**

**_Like it? Love it? Hate it? Abhor it? Feel more than free to let me know; I promise I don't bite at all._  
**


	2. The Home the Tree Leaves Try to Hide

_There are spoilers for very recent_ Naruto_ chapters in this__ chapter.  
_

* * *

_The Fragments of Memories  
_**The Home the Tree Leaves Try to Hide**_**  
**_

* * *

Home is a strange concept. It is and it is not physical. It does and does not apply to only locations. Home can also be feelings, people, places, intangible spaces in one's mind. It is not reserved for where one's heart is or longs to be, as sometimes hearts care nothing about home.

Yet there is something heard in passing—"Wherever someone thinks of you, that's where home is"—that makes sense. So long as there is someone thinking kindly of another, that is where home can truly be found. It may never be spoken, but it is seen in that person's smile, the gentle caresses through hair and against clothes, the private jokes... All these small gestures make a home. All those small gestures are small enough to overlooked, and many will go entire lives without realizing they have a home somewhere. That someone somewhere is smiling as they remember all the times shared together, and that that same someone is looking forward to the day they are reunited.

Yet when that home has been ripped from one—and brutally so, when one is not even yet ten—there is a hole, a lack that is altogether too empty. And the easiest way to fill it is with _hate_.

And the hardest way to fill it is to hate, to avenge, to fail, to have old wounds ripped open, to have your way of life called absurd and stupid, to fail more, to apologize, to atone, to find something to love and cherish, to hope for a new home. It is a hard path, a misunderstood path, and one that steals years—almost eight, to be exact—from one's life.

He is glad it only took eight years, and not more. Perhaps he can discover the home they found, and with him by his side, just like when they were small children untouched by loss. Even though the people who made it a home are all gone now.

* * *

**14 jūichigatsu, Yondaime 1st Year**  
... **14 jūichigatsu, Sandaime 1st (42cd) Year**  
**Konohagakure Border, Land of Fire**

_All the dead of Edo are buried and honored. Inu-no-nī-san called it pointless as in a few years no one will remember a "silly little civilian village that got fucked up by a ninja during war." He may be right, but... So long as I live, no one'll forget Edo. Things can be rebuilt, after all. But Inu-no-nī-san is too impatient and stupid for that. I don't know what Ane-ue sees in him aside from his dog ears._  
_We are to reach Konoha tomorrow. I kind of hope we don't. I...don't want to move on yet. Maybe, one day... Just not so soon._  
_Sango says that all ninja keep field notes on and off missions. Liking Konoha will be mine._

* * *

It is mid-November and a seven-year-old Kagome shivers when a chilling wind blows past. Though the Land of Fire has a temperate climate, they are traveling further north than she is used to after living out her earlier childhood in one of the southern-most villages in the land. She has endured winters before, and further north, but it is still amazing the difference a few hundred kilometers make.

She looks up at the backs of her older sisters and bestest friends to see if they are cold as well, but she can see no tell-tale shivers nor hear their teeth chattering. Granted that they are much older and taller and wearing clothing made of thicker cloth than she, it does not stop her from feeling a bit envious. She wishes that her clothes had not burned with the rest of Edo and all her friends and mother and grandfather last month. Early October around Edo is much warmer than mid-November further north near Konoha, so she is still wearing a green skort and a white blouse and loose socks and sandals. They are dirty and smell, just like her skin and hair, just like every one of her friends and family.

Kikyō and Kaede are lucky that they are considered miko in Edo, and so are always wearing thick red hakama and white haori. Kagome could never quite remember her lessons nor was she old enough to know enough to be considered a miko, too. Inuyasha, also, is lucky enough to be wearing thick red clothes, though is far too callous to loan her his Fire Rat haori like the jerk he is. Miroku and Sango, on the other hand, do not have any clothes that they do not need and so she would never ask them. Instead she does her best to draw what warmth she can from her baby brother, who is sleeping on her back, and from Buyo—her fat lazy supposed-to-be-nin-cat who was a gift from Akane-oba and her daughter, Miyako—whom she is carrying.

Buyo is part of the reason why they are even heading to Konoha. She symbolizes the family they have there among the Uchiha Family. Though it is not as if she has met her cousins who live there as not even Kikyō or Kaede has met them, and they, supposedly, had lived there before. Yet that was before her and Sōta, and so she does not entirely care to learn about it as there, obviously, is a reason why their mother and grandfather left Konoha. And she has only just discovered that a world outside of Edo existed because of that attack two years ago by Onigumo—_that evil meany-head_—and is still trying to reconcile that into her world-view.

Yet she will not pass judgment on Konohagakure. Not until she has seen it and experienced it. Probably not even then. If there is one thing she has learned from her friends and traveling the world, it is that to judge something or someone is often just as wrong as that judgment. Konoha has done nothing to her or her family that she knows of, yet Kagome is only seven and newly bereft of her mother, her grandfather, her village, all her old friends and her old life; all she wants is to have her home back, not a new one: the one with Mama, Jii-chan, and the way her world was two years ago.

"Kagome-chan," Sango said, startling said girl who did not expect such proximity from the older woman. "Is everything all right? You've been lagging behind for a good fifteen minutes."

Fifteen minutes? Kagome looks ahead, and sure enough she is quite a ways behind her sisters, Inuyasha and Miroku. She does not think she spent so long wrapped in her thoughts, but it seems as if she had. "No, nothing's wrong, Sango-chan."

The much-older woman fixes her with a look that clearly says she does not believe her, yet she does not call her out on it. More than anyone else in their group of orphans, Sango knows what it is like to be bereft of everything: home, friends, family, mementos; the only things she has to signify that her family and village existed are her memories, her hand-crafted weapons, her clothes and Kusagakure hitae-ate, and Kirara—an actual nin-cat considered abnormal because of her split tail. Just like Kagome, and it is why she feels a special kind of kinship to Sango even more so than her sisters.

"I'll carry Buyo for you if you'll carry my mask," Sango says with a quiet knowing smile. Kagome opens her mouth to object, but Sango is already removing her blue-checkered scarf containing her mask and hitae-ate from around her neck. Sango, perhaps knowing what protests will come out of Kagome's mouth, says, "Don't worry. It'll only be for a handful of minutes. We're not all that far from Konoha," and ties the aforementioned scarf around her neck while taking Buyo from her arms.

She feels a sense of loss as she sees her cat, the pet she pampered with her mother, in the arms of another. Buyo paws the split tail of Kirara that is dangling in her face, but other than that, she does not notice the change. Kagome tells herself that it is only Sango, that it is only for a little while, that she cannot carry around a cat everywhere, and that she is being silly: it is just a _cat_.

"Ladies," Miroku says, catching them both off-guard, "we're waiting on you." He slips an arm around Sango's waist, much to her obvious annoyance. Kagome does not know why he does this when they all know in three seconds his hand will grope Sango's butt and she will slap him.

"Pervert!" Sango shouts, right on cue, before slapping him as much as the fat Buyo in her arms will allow.

"Oi!" This time, it is Inuyasha who calls out to them. In his typical fashion, he has his arms crossed and hands hidden in the large sleeves of his haori, and his face is an odd mixture of annoyance and amusement. Kagome bets that he is more amused than he lets on, given that Kikyō and Kaede are smiling. "Stop fucking around and pay attention!"

Sango, without missing a beat, casually steps over Miroku while saying, "Oh? We've arrived at Konoha already?"

"Yes," Kikyō says with an elegant tilt of her head. "Kagome, come here. It will be easier for us all to stick together. Though the war ended three months ago, I do not see the guards as lax. Especially with a Suna-nin and a Kusa-nin among us."

Kagome has always been one to listen to and do what is asked of her. Yet she _is_ seven, so when she reaches her sisters and Inuyasha she asks, "But why? The war ended, so it's not like they have anything against Suna or Kusa anymore."

Inuyasha laughs and pokes her in the head. "Idiot."

Kaede glares at him with her one good eye. For some reason her eye-patch makes it all the more scary, at least for Kagome as it does not deter Inuyasha from poking her.

"_Inuyasha_," Kikyō says, drawling out the syllables with a forced calm that makes everyone pause for a second. Only when he moves his arm back to his side does she turn and smile at Kagome. "Relations between nations are far from simple, Kagome. Just because a war has ended does not mean that everyone goes back to playing nice. Hatred will always exist. It is why this was the _third_ war."

"Well, that's stupid."

"Yes." Kikyō ruffles her hair before removing Sōta from his sling at her back. Kagome feels the loss of warmth immediately, and she almost reaches out to grab Sōta from her. She does not fully understand where this desire to keep Sōta and Buyo is coming from, yet she knows enough to know that she is overreacting. "Come. It is foolish to waste more time out in this weather."

Not even Inuyasha has the gall to back-sass Kikyō when she is in one of her moods. Kagome figures it is because they have gone a good month without an actual bath or meal or decent bed or sleep as they have been too busy burying and honoring the dead of Edo and nursing wounds left from their final battle with Onigumo. She hopes bathing is one of the first things they are allowed to do in Konoha.

It is only seconds later that the large deciduous trees end abruptly in face of a large wooden wall. Kagome finds this odd as she has never seen a village surrounded by such a high fence, but she figures this is because it is a _hidden_ village and not a regular village. And the logic makes sense to her brain. Her sisters and friends do not find this odd at all as they simply follow the fence for a few more meters until they find one of the entrances.

As it is only mid-afternoon, the gates are wide open and only two ninja guard it. Kagome, in her excitement and curiosity about her new home, looks around Kaede into the village. In the two days of travel, her imagination has run wild thinking about Konoha and what it will look like. She imagined buildings as tall as trees that struggle to touch the sky, hundreds of people milling about, paved roads and ninja traveling by rooftop, a place where there is always something in bloom. Or even a place that is somewhat underground, hidden from plain view—_as there is no better way to hide than underground!_—that uses civilians as a front.

She is sorely disappointed.

The village looks nothing like what she imagined it would be. In fact, it looks disturbingly like Edo did two years during the botched attempt to raze it to the ground by Naraku. Most buildings are ruins, the ones that still stand are painted in earthy tones just like Edo was, and are close to the ground. No ninja run and jump from the rooftops. Flora is lacking; it seems as though only a few trees still stand tall. People shuffle about listlessly, dressed all in black. Yet, far in the back, a mountain stands tall and has three faces carved into it with a fourth only halfway finished. She squints and can just barely make out small black dots of people working on it.

She knows one thing for certain: she does not particularly like Konoha.

* * *

The inside of the Hokage office is stifling from an odd combination of comfort, too much warmth after autumn days spent on the road, and tobacco. Kikyō was not even five when her grandfather, mother, father and Kaede packed up and moved to Edo, yet she still remembers standing in this office in front of the Sandaime Hokage. Things have changed in it: there are photos involving people much too young to be on any friendly terms with the Sandaime and that feature a striking young man with blond hair—the famed _Yellow Flash of Konoha_ she heard in passing during the last war, she figures. The entire office has the feeling of belonging to someone much younger than Sarutobi Hiruzen, who is just a few years younger than her grandfather. And this coupled with the fact that the entire village seems to be recovering from a devastating attack, a fourth face is being carved on the Hokage Mountain, and that everyone is wearing the colors of mourning—

Kikyō feels as though they have come to Konoha at the wrong time.

Inuyasha nudges her discreetly from his position next to her, and when she looks to him, he raises an eyebrow in question. She knows what he is asking, yet she can offer only a shake of her head; she does not know what has happened either. Miroku and Sango, from their spot on Inuyasha's other side, pick up on their silent conversation. They, unlike Inuyasha, seem to have noticed the depressing undercurrent in the air.

In the village, the depressing aura is more obvious and bearable and easily pushed aside; in this office, it is subtle and heartbreaking and seeps into the corners of their memories as the tobacco does their noses. It shows in the way Hiruzen shuffles through papers at his desk, as though it is not his anymore and he does not know where all the necessary paperwork is; the way he chews the mouthpiece of his pipe, distracted and yearning for a reprimand that will never come again; and the way his shoulders hunch as though from the weight of a burden one does not want. More telling than all of this is the missing presence of his wife, Biwako, whom Kikyō can remember being by his side.

Thankfully, Kagome is more occupied with Buyo and Sōta to fully notice this. Despite her young age and lack of steady schooling, she is highly perceptive of the emotions of others. Kikyō knows she is holding herself together through sheer stubborn will, and to notice his suffering would be her breaking point.

Hiruzen clears his throat and opens a jar of ink. "I apologize for the wait. I'm still getting moved back into this office. So, what do we have here..."

Miroku, being the only actual inhabitant of Konoha among them, speaks up. "Hokage-sama, I've only been gone a couple of years, yet—"

"—Konoha is not as you remember it," Hiruzen finishes with a smile. He sets his pipe down and folds his gnarled hands. They are similar to her grandfather's hands, yet Kikyō is more than certain he is still a fully capable ninja. "I was told by the guards that you're all seeking to become members of this village, for varied reasons." She is sure she is not imagining the twinkle in his eyes when he looks at her and Inuyasha, and Miroku and Sango, just as she is sure she is not imagining the lingering sadness underneath it. "You've come at a very opportune time, and also a very horrible time.

"Opportune because we _are_ in need of capable ninja, and a strengthening of ties with our new allies. Just last month we were attacked by the Kyūbi no Kitsune, and, as I'm sure you saw when coming here, we're still rebuilding. Homes, walls, trainings grounds... All can be rebuilt. Ninja, however, cannot. And we lost far too many in that attack, including the Yondaime Hokage."

Hiruzen paused here and looked from her to Kaede, next to her, then over to the side where Kagome is. He lingered the longest on her youngest sister before shaking his head with a sigh. More than the knowledge of the Kyūbi attack, this set off the warning signs in Kikyō's head that are telling her to grab what remains of her family and _run_. Far away; just away. Perhaps to Suna, or even to the neutral lands she has heard exists called the Land of Iron. She feels for the tragedy of Konoha—she _does_—but she has lived too long in battles to ignore her instincts.

Yet she does her best to this time.

"Which is also why you couldn't have arrived at a worse time. Matsuoka-kun, Wakahisa-kun, I don't think anyone will cause too much trouble for you. The ninja have a grudging respect for your soon-to-be-former lands, and the tales of how you five brought down Naraku have reached even our ears. Many won't bother you. Instead, this warning I extend toward the Higurashi." Kikyō can hear the collective drawn-in breath from all those around her. Kaede and she share an uneasy glance, letting her know that she is not the only one to be feeling an unhealthy sense of trepidation.

It is at this point that Hiruzen stands and walks over to the large windows behind him to look over at the village he has led since the First Great Shinobi War. Kikyō, in a detached way, finds this funny and cliche; a scene from the _Dokonjō Ninden_ that Inuyasha and Miroku love to read so much where horrible news is delivered in this same way. Stress, she figures this has to be the only explanation for her odd desire to laugh.

"Your cousins, the Uchiha Family, have already been contacted. Currently Fugaku is the acting head, being the head of the Police Corps. His wife, Mikoto, will be arriving with him. She has a young son close to your brother's age and will give him some of the urgent care I'm sure he needs. During the Kyūbi attack, however, your aunt was killed. Along with her daughter. She had a young son, though, I believe about the same age as Kagome. His name is Shisui, and he'll be arriving, too. My first request is that when you move into Naka no Jinja that you look after him as well. You're his only direct family left now, too."

Kikyō nods despite her desire to cringe. She cannot leave this place as she first thought to do so, not with an actual Uchiha child to be placed under her care. It would be cruel to leave him behind, and it would be suicidal to take him with her. "Of course. What are your other requests, Hokage-sama?"

If anything, that question made him seem even older than he is. "What I am about to reveal is to stay between us in this room. Do not tell anyone, especially the Uchiha." He sighs and seems to rub his eyes. "Never in all my years as Hokage," he mutters.

"There are quite a few circumstances involving the Kyūbi attack that are cause for concern. Some of these are speculation among the people, which is why you'll face grief for associating with the Uchiha. The Yondaime Hokage was Namikaze Minato, and his wife was Uzumaki Kushina. Yes, I do mean_ that_ Minato and _that_ Kushina. On that night, Kushina gave birth to a son. And on that night, Uchiha Madara infiltrated the village, killed my wife who was Kushina's mid-wife, kidnapped the newborn boy, and unleashed the Kyūbi from Kushina.

"Minato and Kushina gave their lives to subdue the Kyūbi and Madara. They sealed the Kyūbi into their own son, Naruto. No one knows he is Minato's son, though they know he is the new Kyūbi jinchūriki and Kushina's child, and I've issued an order that no one can speak of it to him or anyone. This now applies to you. The villagers don't know of Madara's involvement, but they know enough of history to know only an Uchiha, an Uzumaki or a Higurashi can control the Kyūbi. Obviously, they suspect the Uchiha. It...is a horrible time to be associated to them because the people are suspicious. And the Uchiha will be suspicious of you, assuming that you'll be spying on them for the village."

To Kikyō's surprise, it is Kaede who notices something off about his tone first. "Do you wish for us to spy on them, Hokage-sama?"

"No," he says. "_I _do not wish for you to do so. Though I hope you'll cultivate the ties that once existed and were strong between the Uchiha and the inheritors of the _Will of Fire_."

"The council, then?" Kaede says, as they all know it is not exactly a question, but neither is it a statement. Kikyō is surprised she has remembered the brief lessons and stories from Mama even after so many years to know that the Hokage's council can outvote him.

Kikyō takes in his slumped shoulders, and with one shared, meaningful glance to her sister and their friends, she says, "We shall do what we deem correct."

Hiruzen turns to face them, and it is with a smile this time. "You always were a smart girl, Kikyō. I've sent off messages to Suna and Kusa, letting them know your whereabouts and what you want, Wakahisa-san, Matsuoka-san. We will discuss the inclusion of all of you in Konoha's ninja force when we have a reply. In the meantime, should I fill out a couple of marriage contracts?"

She and Inuyasha shared a look before turning away in embarrassment, and she is certain the same thing happened between Miroku and Sango; if the way Hiruzen and Kaede were smiling and trying to hide their chuckles are anything to go by.

"Ah, to be young and in love," Hiruzen says. "I'm certain we can get through the paperwork before your cousins arrive."

* * *

Uchiha Itachi is bored. And curious. This is never a good combination, especially when his distant cousin, Uchiha Shisui, is as well.

They were training, as all young boys from ninja families do during their free time even though Shisui is on break from the academy due to the reconstruction and he is not yet old enough to join, when his father summoned them. They were going to go with his father and mother to the Hokage Tower on official business. Shisui was asked to come along because it involves his family. It was enough to hook them into going without complaint.

And Shisui had gabbed to him the entire way there about his thoughts about how his first-cousins would be—of course _they have to be amazing ninja! Capable of Katon and every other element because they just _have_ to be cool enough to not need a ninja village_. He could not help pointing out that it could be because of the exact opposite: that they are civilians. Yet Shisui was in no mood to listen.

Itachi felt only slightly vindicated when they arrived to see five adults and one young girl sitting off to the side with a baby. It was obvious that at least the males are ninja, as they wear hitae-ate and one carries a sword while the other carries a shakujō. His eyes are keen enough from the sidelines of the battlefields of the Third Great Shinobi War to notice they are also hiding on their persons at least five other weapons and three scrolls. The woman off to the far right is also obviously a ninja from her hitae-ate. The giant boomerang on her back, along with her nin-cat also to point to that conclusion. He notices around thirty other concealed weapons on her person, and he knows there has to be more than that.

Yet he can tell they are not related to Shisui. The hair, eye and skin color is wrong. The other two women and the young girl are most definitely his cousins, yet he cannot tell if they are ninja or not. The two older women—Kikyō and Kaede, he would learn—do not have Shisui's wild, unruly curls of black hair, though the color is the same. It is the younger girl—Kagome, he heard her called—who has the most resemblance to his cousin. They both have that odd mess of curly hair that other Uchiha do not, and in the same shade of black. Both have sharp jaws and chins, though round cheeks with high cheekbones. Not to mention he can finally see where Shisui got his girly eyelashes from as all his cousins have them as well. And both are a mess of gangling arms and legs made thinner than most children their age should be from too much time spent on the road and in battle and dealing with war. Itachi feels as though he has finally seen what Shisui would look like as a girl; or perhaps it is what Kagome would look like as a boy. He does not know which one came first.

She is, for all intents and purposes, an odd mix of Uchiha and Senju—Itachi has done his homework, he knows how the Higurashi line was formed generations ago—while her sisters are definitely Uchiha down to the darkness of their eyes. Kagome, on the other hand, has lighter eyes: a murky shade of blue he does not know the name to. Shisui and he have spent their entire lives surrounded by family who have dark grey eyes, and he does not know how to take seeing such a color on an Uchiha face.

And it is this physical characteristic that Shisui remarks on as soon as they are ushered out into the hall with his mother and her little brother.

"Your eyes," Shisui says, "they're odd. But I like them! I'm so jealous! I wish my eyes had some color to them. Are they from your mother or father? Do they do anything cool? I know! You see the world in different colors, don't you?"

Itachi smiles as Kagome blinks in the face of Shisui's blunt honesty and bold smile. He can already tell that given more time spent around her, Shisui will be dragging her behind him to everything. However Itachi is not entirely willing to share his beloved older cousin with someone he does not entirely know. So he hopes that this will scare her away from spending time with them.

That dies a crushing death when Kagome returns his smile with one just as bright. It is as trusting as only a child's smile can be. "I got them from sobu. Or so sofu always said. Eyes can do something cool? Like what?"

As if those are the magic words, Shisui launches into an explanation about the Sharingan complete with haphazard arm-flailing. Though Itachi has grown up listening to the history and awesomeness of the Sharingan, it is always entertaining when Shisui explains and embellishes it. And it is worth it to see the look of complete attention Kagome gives their cousin. It proves to Itachi that she is but a civilian.

However, a stern look from his mother just meters away down the hall keeps him from acting out against her too much. He knows that look, just as he knows she is telling him to add into the conversation. She, unlike his father, wants him to make friends and be nice to everyone and to make an effort to be social. He, however, is not Shisui and prefers to keep to himself for whenever he ends up in a conversation with someone it is always about how intelligent he is, how well he will do next year in the academy, what a fine ninja he is, how proud his parents must be...

Yet he never received that from Shisui. Instead, when they first met two years ago, Shisui pushed him off the porch and told him he was committing a crime against childhood by reading instead of playing.

Much like he was that day, he knows Kagome is fast becoming ensnared by the force of nature known as Uchiha Shisui as they trade questions and comments—_"I'm turning eight next month, what about you?"; "Sweet! I'm still the oldest! Hah, that means I get to boss you around, too!"; "You hear that Itachi, Kagome's gonna be going to the academy with you!"_—and Shisui begins to not-so-subtly push him into saying something to her.

Itachi, unknowing of social etiquette given his much earlier childhood years spent on the battlefield killing others instead of _playing_ with them, tries his hardest to come up with a good way of getting in the good graces of his cousin's cousin—_after all, it's Shisui: his awesome older cousin whom is simply amazing, and if Shisui wants to spend time with that girl, then he has to, too_—and, by extension, his cousin. In the times he has been home, he remembers watching his father say something nice about his mother's looks whenever he wants to make her smile. Itachi glances at the older girl in front of him and looks her over. She is oblivious of her surroundings—_can she make it anymore obvious that she's a civilian?_—she cares nothing for nice clothes and hygiene, and Shisui has already gushed over the color of her eyes...

"Kagome-san," he says during a lull in their conversation, "your hair..."

She turns around to look at him with squinted eyes. "What about my hair?" She brings her hands up to make sure nothing is in it, which makes it become tangled in ways it was not before. Shisui begins to snicker without the decency to hide it.

Itachi clasps his hands behind his back and shifts his weight evenly across his feet. "Your hair... It looks like an ink splotch."

Her hands still and her mouth opens in shock as soon as she processes his words. He rolls back onto his heels, feeling as though he has accomplished the art of the compliment, until she fists her hands in the lap of her skort. She closes her mouth with an audible 'click' of her teeth, and her face takes on quite a flush. Itachi finds himself looking around the garden at all possible escape routes when she fixes her large eyes made luminous from possible ressentiment on him in the best glare she can muster up in the face of his not-compliment and Shisui's laughter.

"_You_ look like an ink splotch!"

And thus, the strange and oft convoluted relationship between Uchiha Itachi, Higurashi Kagome, and Uchiha Shisui begins.

* * *

**15 jūichigatsu, Sandaime 1st (42cd) Year**  
**Konohagakure, Land of Fire**

_I hate Konoha. I hate Ane-ue for making me live here._  
_But, most of all, I hate Uchiha Itachi. He's a bigger mean jerk than Inu-no-nī-san could ever be! He's brainless!_  
_I'll only tolerate him for Sui-chan._  
_I can't grow up and leave this village fast enough._

* * *

**Edited 7 September 2010**

**__****Like it? Love it? Hate it? Abhor it? Please don't be afraid to let me know, you honestly won't hurt my feelings.**  



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